Clarity

We currently use Other Work for our operational work buckets(Break.Fix, Routine Ops, and Service Request Fulfillment), but our clients are wanting more granular data rather than just a bucket.  The end result we would be able to show them more detailed "categories/tasks" that include the ability to view the resource allocations and the actuals logged against that "category/task."  As a result, we are looking at using Applications and "Operational" projects.  But, then the phrase "these departments are providing a 'service'" keeps getting mentioned and therefore IT Service Management has become part of the discussion.  But I really wonder if the term "service" that we use matches what PPM defines as a "service.  From reading the docops, it seems a PPM service is a lot more complex than how we define it.  For us a "service" is implementing a server, or supporting an application or system.

So here are my questions: 

How do you capture non-project work and/or supporting an application?

If you use services, how do you use it?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Garrett 

Does anyone have any feedback or advice for me?

My experience is that the Non-Project investments have limitations in their use if you are trying to detail and track functions performed while providing the 'Service'. By that I mean, if you take the IT Management view of a Service, the investments would be set up for 'Services' such as WAN, Cloud Storage, WINTEL, Hosted Storage, Mobile Telephone, Desktop SOE, etc.

Within each of these Services you may want to track operations around Problems, Incidents, Changes, etc (see ITIL Service Operation | IT Process Wiki ). The lack of a WBS for the 'Service' investment greatly hinders the ability to track resource time / effort related to the operations of the Service.

Further more, DevOps is changing the nature of who Service Operations are being managed. Particularly when you are looking at Management Reporting requirements such as how much time is spent on enhancing the Service (Dev) versus keeping the lights on (Ops) and where is the focus of the Service in the Service Management lifecycle.

In the end, on my previous implementation we registered all of our 'Services' as Project investments. But what we requested the Service Managers to do on BAU / Run type Service investments was very different to what we expected the Project Managers to do on a full blown Project. But this decision meant that we had to focus on configuration enhancements that allowed us to delineate between the different types of investments. The thing that was consistent was how we managed Cost Plans / Team Plans.

The 'Other Work' investment was reserved for truly non-work activities such as General Leave, Public Holidays, Training, Sick Leave, etc.

Thanks for the feedback Christopher.  

We had a team meeting last week and came to the same idea that you just suggested.  We will use Projects for our Operational and Service type work and use Other Work for Admin and PTO.

Hi,

We use the full suite of non project investment objects such as Assets, Applications, Services, etc. For Services we have entries for ITIL process such as Change and Release Management, Service Introduction, etc. We also use it to track compliance and audit work.